The present invention relates generally to roof construction and replacement and more particularly to specialized pallets for transporting and delivering roofing materials, including roofing shingles onto peaked roofs.
Roofing shingles are generally packaged in bundles that are stored and shipped on wooden pallets. Prior to the construction of new roofs or the replacement or reroofing of existing roofs roofing shingles need to be delivered onto the roofs. Pallets loaded with bundles of roofing shingles are transported by trucks from warehouses to the worksites and the individual shingle bundles are hauled up to the roofs by a conveyor or the pallets loaded with the shingle bundles are lifted up by a crane or fork lift. In the case of lifting pallets up to a roof by a crane or fork lift the individual bundles of shingles are unloaded from the pallets manually by workers and stacked on opposite sides of the roof ridge. The process of delivering shingles onto roofs is time consuming, labor intensive and exposes workers to unnecessary hazards.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,869 to Garrett, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0207873 to Endrud, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20150021452 to Bourbonnais, United Kingdom Patent Application No. 2 365 845 to Wigley and German Patent Application No. DE3632735 to Bruenyjen exemplify various structures for supporting materials on roofs which involve complicated adjustable structures that require assembly and adjustment which can be inconvenient and hazardous for workers on roofs. In some cases these prior art devices merely provide platforms which can receive various objects including pallets.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,874,451 to Bel discloses a container for use on planar surfaces having various slopes. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0044732 to MacKenzie discloses a pallet with a collapsible frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,467 to Schleicher et al. discloses a pallet formed from a folded profiled metal sheet.
The present invention provides pallets that are designed and configured to straddle and rest on the ridge or peak of a roof which pallets can be used to store, transport and deliver roofing materials, including shingles onto roofs during construction or reroofing.